IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established in the judgment is the likelihood of confusion as a key factor in determining trademark infringement under Section 29(2) of the Trade Marks Act. The judgment also clarified the concept of 'use' of a registered trademark and rejected the plea of disuse of the plaintiff's marks.

JUDGMENT

1. This judgment decides IA 12686/2023, whereby the plaintiff has sought an interlocutory injunction, pending disposal of the present suit CS (Comm) 472/2023, restraining the defendants, and all others acting on their behalf, from using the marks REINDEER BRAND, , , , and REINDEER WONDER in respect of any goods or services, or any other mark which may be confusingly or deceptively similar to the plaintiff's registered DEER Device marks including and marks.

Rival Contentions

Submissions of Mr. Anirudh Bakhru for the plaintiff

2. The case of the plaintiff, as articulated by Mr. Anirudh Bakhru, learned Counsel, is as under:

(i) The plaintiff, a company established in Taiwan in 1954, manufactures adhesive tapes and labels. It is the proprietor of the trade Marks

(a) , in Class 17, for "PVC Insulating Tape, Adhesives Tape, Water Sticking Tape", w.e.f. 18 July 1985, on "proposed to be used" basis, and

(b) , in Class 17, for "Adhesive tape for industrial and commercial use namely, adhesive sealing tape for use in machines or pipelines for preventing gas or liquid from leakage, PVC insulating tape, PVC duct tape, Double-sided adhesive tape, self-fusing tape, polyester tape, polyamide tape, glass cloth tape, cellophane tape, floral tape, vegetable bundling tape, reusable plastic tape which can be written tape" w.e.f. 20 July 1998, claiming user since 17 December 1993, registered under Section 18 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

(ii) The plaintiff launched its products in India for the first time in 1993. Since then, the plaintiff has been using the and Marks (hereinafter referred to as "the DEER marks") continuously, extensively and exclusively, with sales, in India, of approximately US $ 3.4 million.

(iii) It is further asserted that the plaintiff has, later, adopted various variants of the DEER marks, including

(iv) To vouchsafe its reach and reputation, the plaintiff has provided the sales figures of Avatack Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Avatack"), one of its licensees, in India, year CS (wise from 2012 till 2022. For the years 2021 and 2022, the sales figures of Avatack are stated to be US $ 0.886 million and US $ 1.15 million respectively. The plaint also refers to various encomiums and awards earned by the plaintiff. However, most of them were earned in Taiwan.

(v) The plaintiff also owns the domain name www.fourpillars.com, created on 18 December 1997.

(vi) In or around May 2023, the plaintiff came to learn of the listing, on the e-commerce portal IndiaMart, of PVC insulation tapes bearing the marks , and (hereinafter referred to as "the REINDEER marks") by Defendant 3, Gomec Industries Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "GIPL"). Investigations are stated to have revealed that goods bearing the REINDEER marks were being sold in physical markets through distributors of Defendants 1 and 3. The products were also being advertised and publicised through brochures released by Defendant 3.

(vii) Thereafter, in or around August 2018, the plaintiff claims to have come across Application No. 3827504 filed by Defendant 1 Mahipal Jain (hereinafter referred to as "Mahipal") before the Registry of Trade Marks for registration of the mark in Class 17 of the NICE classification of trademarks, on proposed to be used basis, for "Adhesive tapes including PTFE thread seal tapes, PVC insulating tapes, crepe paper masking tapes, duct tapes, double sided tapes, sealing tapes, pressure sensitive tapes, adhesive coated plastic in form of film, rubber adhesive, plastic, polyester, foam and rubber, plastic in extruded form for use in manufacture, packing stopping and insulating material being goods included in Class 17". The plaintiff filed its opposition to the said application before the Trade Marks Registry, and the application retains the said status till date.

(viii) Thereafter, the plaintiff came to learn of further Applications, being

(a) Application 4649108, by Mahipal for the device mark , filed on 10 September 2020, seeking registrati